Inappropriate paddling-again!

An urge struck me this afternoon to make Nut Rolls. I have no idea why-but I went with it. It had been a building urge. Something that had been calling to me for days. Baking is not usually something I do without reason. But here I was making nut rolls in the middle of the day, in between and during conference calls.

I made the scalded milk, added the butter and sugar and then the eggs. Then the yeast. Now it was time to pour all that in the mixer and add the flour.

As I am doing this, I am reminded of the last time I made nut roll. It was Christmas and I was already exhausted from making the 5000 cookies. I had cracked the 7 eggs in a bowl instead of separating them, poured my tea into the eggs instead of my tea cup and then used the wire whisk instead of the dough hook to mix in the flour. A disaster ensued. ALthough it was one I ate in private and it was quite yummy-but that is another story.

All the while I chalked this up to extreme exhaustion.

Today I am making everything fully rested, reading the recipe twice to make sure everything is going in at the right time. Actually measuring (for the most part), altering the recipe for things I want to try out (more egg yolk, less egg white) and in general--being "present"--or so I thought.

Enter senior moment. Staring at the mixer I am thinking about how the last time I had been so stupid as to use the wire whisk and watch and wonder why the dough was not climbing the dough hook. How silly, I thought.

There I am staring at this going round and round in the bowl and wondering why it isn't climbing the dough hook.

Are you ready for this? I wasn't using the dough hook! I put the pastry paddle on this time instead of the dough hook. I couldn't believe it. While thinking about how I did it the last time-I did it again! there is definitely something wrong with my brain!

I recovered this time - getting the dough hook on and finishing the job. But really-how can I be so stupid?? You don't see THAT on the food network!

The nut rolls came out beautifully. I forgot to take pictures before I put them in their respective ziploc bags. But I enclosed one from the christmas set. they look the same. Most of them are getting sent out for Easter-but I am keeping the little ones I make in the Brioche tins. they are so cute. You can just pop them in your mouth. Pop! yummy! Expand. Oh well.

Creme Anglaise and a likable (or is that lickable) Impostor

Creme Anglaise is not technically one of the mother sauces. However it is a custard and was included in my Sauces class because I feel all good goods should be versed in custard basics.

A Creme Anglaise will make any cake dessert sublime. It takes the ordinary and makes it "WOW OH WOW is that GOOD!" And really-if you are going to make something-you probably want the accolades. Why settle for "oh -this is good"--when you could have so much more?

So is this something you will regret trying to make and throw the pan at your laptop cursing me out? Not likely. But will you occasionally screw it up because you weren't paying attention? Probably. But don't be discouraged. It happens to the best of us. Concentration is so easily broken by the door bell, the phone or any other daily distraction you are likely to encounter. I will say-any custard takes concentration and attention to detail for about 10 minutes. If you can handle that-you can handle a custard.

By the way, custards are the basis for all homemade ice creams. So master this and you can become the neighborhood ice cream guru. I love making all different kinds of creative ice creams. Carmel corn, Guinness beer, five spice, etc., it's really fun once you get the hang of the basics. But I digress...

Creme Anglaise:

It is yet another egg and the hot milk story. So once again-science is involved. One must not cook the egg or in this case-allow the egg to continue to cook.

So first you need to prepare an ice-water bath-this will be used for the sauce after you have cooked it to proper temperature. you will want to stop the cooking process immediately by straining the sauce into a bowl set on the ice water bath.

Now put milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Make sure the heat is not too high-you want the milk to come to a boil slowly otherwise more than likely you will burn the milk.

While the milk is heating, in a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and salt until thick and light (I usually add vanilla now as well-even though the recipe doesn't call for it). Slowly pour in half of the hot milk, while stirring constantly. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the remaining milk mixture, stirring constantly.

Be careful to temper the egg by adding the milk very slowly-bringing the egg up to temperature instead of cooking it and making scrambled eggs. If your mixture looks like scrambled eggs-throw it out and try again. This time-go SLOWLY!

If you are successful and your mixture is smooth congratulations you are half way there-stir in the bourbon.

Now the fun part. Place saucepan over low heat and bring to a gently simmer, stirring constantly. Continue cooking until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and reaches 180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. (oh there is that darn thermometer again. I told you to buy one! ) Immediately remove from heat.

Strain Crème Anglaise through a fine mesh sieve set over a medium bowl. Set bowl in ice water bath and stir Crème Anglaise until cooled.

That's it! A perfectly lovely sauce that will make anything taste delicious!

Now for an impostor that is easier to make and very yummy. (I'm going to let you in on a secret here-I like it better than the Creme Anglaise!)

Sauce:
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup amaretto liqueur
2 teaspoons cornstarch

To make the sauce: Bring the cream, milk, and sugar to a boil in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently. In a small bowl, mix the amaretto and cornstarch to blend and then whisk into the cream mixture. Simmer over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Set aside and keep warm. (The amaretto sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before serving.)

I wonder how many days those women on TV would want you to starve yourself to have a teaspoon of this stuff? two weeks maybe? I think I'll eat the whole bowl just to piss them off. Well ok-maybe the whole bowl is going a bit too far. Half. :).

Dieting do's and dont's

This weekend I was watching some Today Show type program (have no idea what it was as I do not watch TV very often). The only time I really watch TV is when I am up skiing and turn it on when I am vegging after a hard day of skiing.

So there I am eating my french bread, cheese, and egg sandwich that I made which was Oh SO Yummy, listening to these two very very very thin women talk about diets.

This is what they said:
Have a yogurt in the morning and a fruit for a snack and then a half a sandwich for lunch with a salad. Dinner? a salad with some chicken on top and if you are still really hungry-a dessert like sugar free pudding.

But here's the really scary part, they said this was a plan you could stick with! Not something crazy like no sugar or no carbs or what ever else you might have tried. And yes-if you wanted a treat-every once in a while-have it. But just not every week. EVERY WEEK???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are they nuts? Yes, these women are clearly a size 0 and this is what they are telling women they should do for the rest of their lives to be a size 0.

Oh, and that glass of wine? Forget it-it contains 150 fat producing, willpower reducing calories. Just say no. So say no to food, wine, dessert, anything that might make you happy and reasonable. But you'll be a size 0!

Honestly, I don't want to be a size 0 and I certainly don't want to only eat something fun once a week! Also, I have no desire to walk around in a perpetually starved state of mind. I think this is a great way to keep women down. If your mind is not your own, if all you are focused on is losing weight and fighting that "I am totally starved right now but I can't eat so I can lose weight" feeling-how are you going to give 100% to what ever it is that is really important in your life?

I am not advocating gluttony or over eating-but I am really sick of how women get on TV and talk about being thin as the single most important thing a woman can do. Healthy yes, thin to bony-disturbing and counterproductive.

I finished my egg sandwich, licked the egg off my finger and changed the channel. I advise you to do the same.

Hollandaise "clarified"

Ah yes, the infamous Hollandaise sauce. This is the third of the mother sauces we are going to discuss.

Hollandaise is an emulsion. What that means is that it depends on shearing of molecules to separate them and then deposit water molecules in between. the shearing part comes from a wire whisk or a blender.

The wire whisk method is traditional and imparts a much better flavor and texture to the Hollandaise. A blender is the foolproof easy way out-but it isn't really a full flavored Hollandaise. I think of it as cheating. However many of you may think of it as the only way you would make this sauce.

It is not easy and will not always come out the first time. Also critical to the success of the sauce is the type of double boiler you are using. I learned this the hard way in my first Diva class on sauces when I tried to use a ceramic double broiler intended for chocolate. What you need is a stainless steel double boiler that gives ample room between the bottom of the double boiler pan and the boiling or simmering water. The ceramic one was way too deep and touched the simmering water-cooking the eggs almost instantly. In the picture above the pan is the correct set up.

Of course Chemistry again plays a big part in making a Hollandaise. Heat and eggs always yield a chemistry lesson :). First-only simmer the water. The boiling point on water is 214 degrees. Eggs turn solid at about 170. If you are whisking over boiling water your eggs will turn solid-no exceptions.

The trick to a Hollandaise is to get the eggs nice and thick without letting them solidify. So we raise the solidification point with the introduction of an acid. In this case, we use a little vinegar bringing the solidifying temp up about 20 degrees. This will allow you to whisk the eggs longer over the heat and get them much thicker (as well as acutally cook them so that from a health perspective you are not eating raw egg yolk-anything over 165 degrees is cooked).

Hollandaise in its basic form is eggs and butter. The butter should be clarified for the most consistent texture and the best flavor. Clarifying butter entails melting it, letting it rest about five minutes, then skimming off the part that looks like oil and leaving behind the white milk solids at the bottom. It doesn't have to be perfect-but you should get as little of the solids at the bottom as possible. Make sure your butter doesn't re-set on you (from the room being cold) and also that it isn't too hot (if you reheat it after clarifying). If it is too hot it will cook the eggs.

Crack your eggs and place the egg yolks in a double boiler over simmering (not boiling) water. Make sure to have your vinegar and clarified butter ready. Start whisking your eggs. add the vinegar reduction, keep whisking. The eggs will start to get thick. Once you get them to the desired thickness (as thick as you feel "safe" going-the longer you whisk the greater the chance of hard egg yolks). When you think the yolks are ready, remove the pan from the heat and start adding the clarified butter-first just a little then about three tablespoons at a time. Continue whisking. If you stop whisking you will have a mess. The whisking is creating the emulsion. You are literally shearing the molecules with the whisk.

Continue adding butter and whisking whisking till all the butter is gone. Add the lemon juice and peppers and salt. Test for thickness. If the sauce is too thick, add a little warm water.

That's it-it's ready to serve. It doesn't hold that well so make it last as you are ready to put dinner on the table.

From this you can make Common Secondary Sauces: Béarnaise, Maltaise, Mousseline, Foyot, Choron With this Hollandaise recipe though-you will have the basis for many other sauces. That is why it is called a mother sauce.

To make 2 cups of Hollandaise, you will need:
1 1/4 lbs of butter, clarified (you should end up with about 1 lb of clarified butter)
1/8 teaspoon Peppercorns, crushed
1/8 teaspoon Salt, (kosher preferred)
3 tablespoons White Wine Vinegar
2 tablespoons cold water
6 Egg Yolks
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Salt and Cayenne Pepper to taste

(you can half this recipe because usually 2 cups of sauce is way too much)

Hollandaise Procedure
Clarify your butter.
Place salt, vinegar and crushed peppercorns into a sauce pan and reduce by 2/3. Remove from heat and add water.
Transfer reduction to a stainless-steel mixing bowl.
Add egg yolks and beat over a simmering pot of water until the egg yolks become thick and creamy. (If unsure about the thickness, monitor with an instant read thermometer and make sure the eggs do not exceed 150 degrees F).
Once the egg yolks have reached the desired thickness, remove from heat. Using a ladle, slowly drizzle in the warm clarified butter, starting with just a few droplets first to get the emulsion going.
Continue streaming in the clarified butter until it is completely incorporated. If the hollandaise becomes too thick before all the butter is emulsified in, thin the hollandaise with a couple drops of warm water.
Finish by seasoning your hollandaise with salt, lemon juice and cayenne pepper to taste. Add just enough cayenne to help cut through the fat of the hollandaise and to add depth of flavor; your hollandaise should not be spicy.
Adjust finale consistency with a little bit of warm water to both lighten the sauce and give it better flow.
Keep warm over a double boiler (ban-marie) until ready to serve. The best holding temperature is about 145 degrees F. This temperature both discourages the growth of bacteria and is hot enough to keep the fat in your hollandaise from solidifying. For both food safety and quality control, hollandaise should not be held any longer than two hours.

Guidelines for Making Hollandaise
Eggs start to curdle at around 160-170 degrees F. The trick is to heat your egg yolks enough to get them thick, but stop right before they reach this temperature.
Acid (usually in the form of lemon juice and/or vinegar) will help to keep your egg yolks from coagulating. If the PH in you egg mixture is around 4.5, then the curdling temperature of the yolks is raised to about 195 degrees F. This is why most classical version of hollandaise call for the addition of a vinegar reduction to be cooked with the yolks.
When making hollandaise, some chefs use whole butter while others use clarified. Although it really comes down to personal preference, just remember that whole butter is about 15% water whereas clarified butter is straight butter fat. Because of its water content, more whole butter is needed to thicken a hollandaise then just straight clarified butter.
Make sure your acid reduction is cool before the egg yolks are added or they may curdle.
The fresher your egg yolks, the easier it is for you to make your emulsion.
Use a stainless steel, round bottom bowl. The round bottom will make it easier for you to beat the egg yolks evenly and the stainless steel will not react to the acid discolor your hollandaise.
When adding your butter to the egg yolks, make sure that it is warm (about 130 degrees F) but not hot. If your clarified butter is to hot it will instantly curdle your egg yolks.
Whenever making any type of emulsion, always add the fat or oil slowly at first, a couple drops at a time. Hollandaise is no different. If you add the butter too fast, then it will give the fat a chance to “coalesce,” which will cause your sauce to separate.
Another common reason why hollandaise will break is the addition of too much fat. The standard ratio is 6 egg yolks to 1lb of clarified butter.
If concerned about the consumption of raw egg yolks, heat yolks to at least 165 degrees F or use pasteurized egg yolks to make your hollandaise.

"wine"ing about "screw"ing around

It recently occurred to me that many people do not know what corked wine tastes like. A few weekends ago I ordered two very expensive glasses of wine at an establishment I frequent.

The wine began beautifully and then WHAM! that skunky taste- irrefutably corked. I hate calling corked on a glass of wine in a place I frequent because most bartenders have no idea what a good glass of wine is supposed to taste like and think you are being high maintenance. Fortunately, Dave is an exception. His knowledge of wine is quite good and his palate is excellent.

I called him over and offered no explanation other than I wanted him to try the wine. He drank, looked pleased, then YUCK! corked. He promptly took both of our glasses and disposed of the offensive contents-opened a new bottle and poured us two new glasses-tasting first to make sure this one was fine. It was-and it was as scrumptious as I had anticipated.

A week later I am in another very nice place with a different friend and order two glasses of nice wine. A sip, enjoyment, then WHAM! corked again! How can this be two weekends in a row-I can go years without have a corked wine and now two in a row. Hesitantly I call over the bartender, explaining that i think the wine is corked, expecting a HMPH out of him. instead, he smells it, rotates it in his nose, and then takes a taste. Face does a nice corkscrew and we get two completely different glasses on the house.

Both times, my friends would have drunk this offensive wine. In fact, one of them told me she would just think it was a type of wine she didn't like, make note of it and never drink it again. Hence why some people announce they don't like Cabernet's or Malbec's or some other type of wine. Chances are it was a bad wine, but chances are just as good that it was corked.

SO what is corked wine? The best way I can describe it is the finish on a wine tastes like your dirty laundry smells. Sometimes you can smell it-but more often that not, you cannot smell it. The best chance at smelling it is when the bottle is opened. The cork will usually have an offensive odor. But so few bartenders or waitstaff smell the cork anymore and it is not routinely offered to the buyer. Also, if buying wine by the glass at the bar-you have no chance at a cork smelling unless the bottle was opened in front of you.

And what causes this? Corks are prone to something called TCA contamination. It can also come from the wine barrel-but more often it is from the cork. This is the very reason you are seeing screw top wines come back in vogue.

Many wineries-even upscale ones-are sick and tired of losing inventory to corking. So their are two alternatives:
Screw tops or synthetic tops. Both are much more prevalent these days. I must say-I miss corks. I love their spongy nature and the way the wine bleeds its color onto the cork. The ritual of smelling the cork of a newly opened bottle and getting that earthly fragrance from the cork-anticipating the wine's flavors.

Synthetics and screw tops offer none of that-but they do eliminate cork "corking". This is not to say you can't still have a corked bottle of wine-remember a very small percentage of corked wines have been ruined by a barrel. So even it it has a screw top or a synthetic cork-if it taste musty, it's probably corked.

Of course the biggest knock off on those screw tops is the lack of ceremony they allow at a fancy or romantic dinner. Somehow the snap of metal breaking as you twist the cap cannot compete with the familiar thwack you hear when bottle is uncorked. We are programed to anticipate something good is coming when we hear that sound.

So don't drink bad wine. All wines are not to your taste I am sure-this is not what this is about. This is about the difference in eating spoiled meat or meat that is not in a sauce you fancy. If you don't like the taste of the wine-move on to something else. But if it tastes like dirty sneakers-chances are pretty high that its corked. Don't drink bad wine. It spoils the palate and deters anticipation of a good thing.

Viva Veloute!

Just trying to drum up a little excitement for this somewhat forgotten Mother Sauce.

What is Veloute you ask? Very simply, it is a Bechamel with stock instead of milk. the roux thickens the sauce and it is velvety because of the Roux. But it does not have milk. So those of you with a lactose intolerance may find this is a sauce you can have with minimal "effect". And it is very lux so you won't miss the milk.

For our Veloute, I wanted to infuse the Roux with flavor so I used cilantro, leeks and celery. ALl finely chopped and put in the Roux as it cooked. I reserved the cilantro leaves and used only the stems in the cooking.

BONUS! three things you should know about cilantro.

1) it is a cool weather herb preferring weather in the 70's and full sun to grow. Anything over 85 for a day or two and it will bolt. this means it will seed. so now you will have all these little brown seeds at the end of the fronds. these are coriander. you can use them in cooking but save a few to drop in a pot in late august so you have more cilantro in the fall.

2) cilantro is the only herb that i know of where the stems are just as tasty as the leaves. So you can use the whole plant.

3) Cilantro doesn't like heat in the kitchen anymore than it likes heat outside. if you put it in a hot dish you must do so at the very end of the cooking process-just as you are serving it-or it will not impart any taste.

Back to Veloute.

We melted the butter, added the above veggies, let them get soft and then added the flour. This made our Roux, which we cooked for a while till the flour taste was cooked out. then we added the warm broth to a warm Roux. In about 8 minutes we had a thick beautiful flavorful sauce. Now we seasoned it with salt and white pepper. (regretfully we did not take a picture of the completed sauce-but it is on the fish which was plated in the first picture).

This sauce will hold for a long time so no need to make it just before you server. make it the day before if you want-just thin it with a little broth if needed when you reheat.

This goes over fish or chicken very nicely. Gives a rich creamy texture to everything you put it on.

How simple is THAT to go from blah to WOW! in just a few minutes. Try it-you'll look like a star. And only I will know that it was ever so easy. :)

I'm ruining it for everyone

This isn't the first time I have heard this. Seems everyone is oblivious to some of the devious things people do to commercial food-until you are made aware.

Just this week my friend Marianne told me she had a cake for a birthday celebration and she could taste the lard in the "butter cream" frosting. Guess no one would buy it if they called it "lard cream" frosting. Yes, just the thought...conjures up images of the grease they use in car engines.

Hope I haven't ruined your appetite. :).

Scalloped Potato Perfection

Well no doubt you have many recipes for scalloped potatoes which all seem so simple and the result should be so delectable. But that never seems to happen.

The number one problem with scalloped potatoes is they are undercooked.

The number two problem, they are watery

The number three problem, they are tasteless.

Well-that's quite a resume for a simple little recipe! So let's tackle these one by one.

The Number One complaint about scalloped potatoes? Undercooked.

Most recipes will tell you to take raw sliced potatoes and put then in a casserole dish with your cheese sauce and bake for an hour. That will always lead to hard potatoes. So what to do.... what to do. Well, the obvious answer is bake them longer. However since you have a cheese sauce on them you have to be careful not to over cook them in the oven.

So here's a quick trick. Put your potato slices in the milk you heat up for the Bechamel and let them cook a little in the milk before pouring the milk into the Roux. Then, when you are through making the Bechamel, return it to the sliced potatoes and let them cook a bit more on low heat with the onion in the sauce as well.

When you bake them, make sure they are covered for an hour. Then remove the cover and continue to bake them for about another 1/2 hour. So 90 minutes in all.

Number two complaint: Watery.

Now this one is a little bit of science and a little bit of self control.

When you are making scalloped potatoes, the tendency is to want to get the potatoes peeled and sliced and then soak them in water till you are ready to use them. This feels efficient because you have completed a task which seems benign in its early completion. However this is your first mistake (well maybe reading this blog is your first mistake-but we'll save that for later).

Potatoes have a lot of starch in them and when you soak them you are releasing this starch into the soaking water. Then, when you cook them, there is not enough starch left to thicken the sauce. You will get watery potatoes.

The lesson here is to soak them in the milk you are going to be using. this will allow the starch to release into the same liquid you will be using in the sauce so you won't lose any of that coagulating starch.

The second mistake is not choosing a starchy potato. Each potato has a different level of starch. Baking potatoes are very high in starch. But they lack the ability to absorb flavor very well. So they will cook up well-but won't be all that flavorful.

Red potatoes have almost no starch so would be very watery. They do absorb a lot of flavor though, and this is why they are a good choice for potato salad-but not scalloped potatoes.

Yukon Gold potatoes are fairly starchy and also absorb lots of flavor. They are the best choice for Scalloped Potatoes.

Number Three biggest complaint: They taste dull and flavorless.

This can be the result of several things. First, choosing the wrong potato-a baking potato will not absorb flavor so will be flat. The sauce may be good-but it can't compensate for a flat potato.

Then there is the issue of the sauce. Many recipes have you add milk and that's it. No Roux, no Bechamel. Maybe a little flour-but no Roux. Well that is a double Yuck. First you get no flavor from just the milk, and then you compound the problem by adding flour and not cooking it. Now you have flat flavor with floury after tastes. Now that is what I call Yummy. NOT!

And one of the number one reasons why the potatoes taste flat? You didn't salt the potatoes before cooking. An unsalted potato will suck salt from the sauce and render everything tasteless. Remember-salt is a flavor enhancer-even in nature. So no salt equals no flavor when it comes to a potato (pasta also-but that is another lesson).

So when you peel the potatoes, before you put them in the milk, salt them WELL. Potatoes take a lot of salt. Trust me on this one.

Assuming you have chosen the right potato, go back a few posts and see what I said about making a Roux, then Bechamel. Make the Bechamel and come back here after that.

Assuming you have made a Bechamel, salted your potatoes and soaked them in the milk you were using to make the sauce, and you have them simmering in the finished Bechamel-we can move on.

For a little extra zing, take two peeled garlic gloves and roughly chop them. Add them to the simmering potatoes.

Now prepare your casserole dish. I butter it all over so the crusty edges are even yummier. This will make the potatoes come out of the pan more easily and clean up will be less tedious.

Add some cheese to the simmering milk. My favorite is a combination of Jarlsberg and Gruyere. Just mix in about a cup or more of cheese. Then pour that into your casserole dish. Add more cheese on top till the top is covered with cheese.

If you have a casserole dish with a cover use that-otherwise wrap it tightly in foil and place in a 375 degree oven for an hour. After an hour, remove the foil and continue to cook for another 1/2 hour.

Voila! The perfect Scalloped potato! Um. I could eat some right now. Oh-I think I will-I have some in the freezer. did I mention they freeze well? :).

I Give up

Just so you know-I spend a lot of time trying to get the paragraphing and spacing right on this blog. but it has a mind of it's own. I just wanted everyone to know that I do not support the run on sentence/paragraph society. I really do try. but as soon as I hit "POST" something happens to all my spacing.

I'll keep trying-but there is just so much a girl can do!

Oh, and while we are on the subject-the spell checker on this thing is horrible. It can't even repair hte to be the or ot to be to. I manually correct most words and you can imagine what it thinks of words like Veloute! SO go easy on me when you think I am careless or a moron. it's not my fault-reallllllly! (I mean I may be a moron-but in so many other ways :). )

Cheesey

Yes, the next sauce is "cheesey". Not in the Walmart sort of way, but in the yummy, silky, creamy, tangy sort of way.

In the last post we talked about Roux's. Now we are taking that Roux and making a Bechamel that is the basis for the best scallop potatoes you have had.

Once you have made the Roux, set it aside for about 3 or 4 minutes till it cools just a bit. In the meantime, heat about 2 cups of milk for 5 minutes-or until warm. Add the warm milk to the warm roux. mix well.

Add a pinch of nutmeg, salt and white pepper. White pepper has a different taste than black pepper. it is not as hot-but more spicy. a nice flavor. more subtle yet more flavorful. And with white pepper you won't find little black bits in the sauce.

Continue to stir until the mixture thickens-about 8 minutes. The sauce is ready to use as is-or can be embellished. I like to add an onion half or some shallot quarters to the pot while it is sitting around waiting to be used. this will further flavor the sauce. you will remove these before using the sauce so make sure they are big enough that you can scoop them out.

In the picture above, the sauce is complete and the onion is still in the sauce-see it sticking up. It stays there flavoring the sauce until I decide to use it for something. In this case-scallop potatoes. You can also see some sliced potatoes in the pot where I have added the Bechamel. we will learn why in the next post.

To make a lovely cheese sauce, simply add your favorite cheese. I like Gruyere and Jarlsberg, but some other great tasting cheeses with the Bechamel are Manchego or Gorgonzola. let your imagination run wild.

"roux" the day

Roux Roux Roux. You've heard it, you've seen it, you've tried it. But what happened? usually it either tasted like flour, did not thicken properly or you thought you messed it up and you threw it out.

Let's talk about Roux so you don't rue the day you tried to use a Roux.

First a little about the food channel. You see them make what they call a Roux-but frequently it is a Slagg. This is a Roux that is pourable. A true Roux is NOT pourable. This means that what you thought was ruined was probably right. Look at the picture above-see how it looks lumpy and chunky? that's a Roux.

You can continue to cook this Roux-stirring all the while-until it turns brown and then even black. This will give your finished product a distinctly nuttier taste as it gets darker and darker.

I usually use a blond roux. I think it tastes best for my usual use of a roux which is a base for a Bechamel or a Veloute. But some southern cooking (specifically Cajun-New Orleans type) will use a brown or black roux. Most of the taste of the finished product is determined by the darkness of the roux.

Once you have learned how to make a basic roux-you will learn that you can flavor the roux. During in our class, we made one roux the plain way, and then another roux with cilantro, leeks and celery. You put this right in the roux and cook it (there is a picture of this roux as well-it is the first picture).

And what about cooking it? This is a very important step. You need to cook the roux until all the flour taste is cooked out. Raw flour is not a yummy flavor. This is probably the number one problem with most roux's. They were not cooked thoroughly. The flour taste is bland and then overpowers the lovely flavors you should be getting from the butter and milk or stock you have added to the roux

Most people put the milk in as soon as they mix the butter and flour together. Do not do this--it will leave a distinct four aftertaste in your finished sauce. Cook the Roux thoroughly. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Another common mistake is to add the milk to a hot roux. The milk and the roux should be at about the same temperature. so that means heat your milk a bit and let the roux cool a bit before blending them. Hot roux will separate most of the time and your sauce will not be smooth and creamy. So warm milk and warm roux for a consistent result.

Basic recipe for a Roux:

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup flour (maybe a little more)

melt butter, add flour and cook well (at least 3 minutes) stirring the whole time. add more flour if it is not thick enough. Make sure to continue to cook and stir until all flour is cooked.

It should look thick and lumpy like the picture above (third picture down).

Now you are ready for lesson 2.

Mother sauces

When I decided to have the Diva class on sauces I had no idea of people's preconceived notions of what the class would be like. I knew that what I would be teaching would be technically as good as it gets outside of a culinary school.

But when the Diva's (and one Divo) came to the class-I realized they got something completely different from what they were expecting.

I did not teach a class which showed how to make a specific sauce. Instead-I went the "teach a man to fish" route and taught the basics of sauces.

It is my plan to educate so that you can create. The sauce theory is no different.

Here's how it works. There are five mother sauces:

Bechamel

Espangole

Veloute

Hollandaise

Vinaigrette

From these most sauces emanate. We made all but the Espangnole which takes a day to make so limited time did not permit this sauce. Espangnole is the basis for all brown sauces (Bordalaise, any steak sauce, etc).

We did a bourbon Creme Anglaise to show a custard based sweet sauce-which is somewhat like a Bechamel-but without the cheese and flour. But I digress...

The class proceedure:

We started with the Creme Anglaise which was used to top a Panetonne bread pudding I had already made.

Then we moved on to a Bechemal which we embellished with Gruyere and Jarlsberg cheese. Bechamel's are roux based so we first learned how to make a simple roux to which we added milk and cheese. Then we made scrumptious scallop potatoes-for which I will give the "how to" in the next post.

Having made a standard roux for the bechamel, a roux with celery and leeks and cilantro showed how you can vary a roux. Instead of using milk for a Bechamel, we used chicken stock to make a Veloute. The Veloute sauced a lovely piece of thick pan roasted cod.

Next was an onion vinaigrette which we used to top an avocado and roasted beet salad.

And lastly we made the Hollandaise which finished some pan seared asparagus.

Then we ate. Yum.

She's BAAAAACK

Ok Ok-I've been gone for a while. So sorry to all my Diva followers.

But Hong Kong really knocked the stuffin' out of me. Just couldn't get into a good sleep routine and then there was so much work to do so 20 hour work days perpetuated for the whole week.

And of course it would have been wise to simply relax all weekend-but no, I had two diva classes on-- of all things-- SAUCES! who does that to themselves?? Me who else. Insanity runs in my family. What can I say. I was in the shallow end of the Gene pool.

We will have many postings now I hope. Although skiing was unbelievable this weekend so all of my spare time will go into ensuring that I can leave Friday afternoon to get on that mountain!

In the meantime-hope you enjoy the following post on the diva sauce class.